Social media ratings, word of mouth reviews and any other references to your school from current or past parents carry, by far, so much more weight when choosing a school compared to glossy websites and bus shelter advertisements.

Today’s prospective parents are screaming for authenticity and a community who will recommend your school is a marketing goldmine.

Brand advocates converted from current or past parents are real people that know the ins and outs of your school and can provide insights into the day-to-day experience. They are a credible, as well as a relatable, source of information and it’s these two qualities that prospective parents trust now more than ever.

Coordinating a photo shoot is a great way to capture a broad selection of images for your school’s future marketing communications. They will also refresh old media and can be implemented across a range of communications from your school’s website, to advertising, promotional materials, publications and social media. Good images support new messaging and concepts, themes or campaigns, and make them come to life.

Organising a photo shoot can be very fun and exciting; an avenue to exercise your creative flair. However, it can also be very tiring, stressful and requires a great amount of planning and organisation.

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – but we often do. The way your brand looks, affects how your brand is perceived. If your brand’s visual identity doesn’t quite hit the mark, immediately you are under-selling your school’s offering on first impressions.

Your school’s visual identity needs to support your brand personality and let your school community know what you stand for. It sets a tone and echos your school’s values so it must be relevant, accurate and used consistently.

Here’s how to craft a visual identity that supports your school’s brand:

Branded merchandise can be a double-edged sword; on one hand you have a promotional item that can easily generate brand awareness and on the other, you risk wasting funds on a product that doesn’t align with your school’s mission or the needs of your parent audience. So just how can you ensure your branded merchandise provides a solid return on investment?

I remember attending O-Week during my first year of university and being slightly overwhelmed with all the stalls set up by clubs and societies, local businesses and not-for-profit organisations. One of the stalls was manned by a mental health foundation who were distributing stress balls to students.

At the time I didn’t really think anything of it – it was just a little yellow ball with a company logo and a website URL. It wasn’t until my first exam period rolled around that I started to use the stress ball and it became an extension of my left hand while my right was busy working on study notes.

We’re witnessing an upsurge in online visual content, particularly in social media. Aside from the rising popularity of apps like Snapchat, social media platforms are starting to integrate more video and visual content in their feeds, like Facebook Live and Instagram Stories. Why is this trend happening now?

If you are a regular reader of imageseven’s blog you will know that content creation is a frequent theme. Whilst written text blog articles are an effective common practice, content creators need to constantly be thinking of different ways to present information so that audiences will take the time to view and absorb what you have to say. Visual content marketing is one such initiative.

As this previous blog explains, visual content marketing is the use of images, graphics and video to support or replace written content.

So, here are some suggestions on how to make a start with visual content marketing: